Section 4: Petroleum Refining

Waste Management by Petroleum Refineries

This figure shows that production-related waste managed by the petroleum refining sector has decreased by 17% from 2003 to 2012, while production (represented by the black line as reported by the Federal Reserve Board Industrial Production Index) has also decreased, but only by 5%. In 2013, 4% of the sector’s waste was released, while the rest was managed through treatment, energy recovery, and recycling. The quantity treated decreased by 45% from 2003 to 2013 while the quantity used for energy recovery increased by 34%. In 2013, three chemicals accounted for two-thirds of the sector’s waste — hydrogen sulfide (40%), ammonia (18%), and ethylene (9%). Hydrogen sulfide is excluded from the production-related waste trend figure because it was not a TRI-reportable chemical until 2012. The following figure shows quantities of hydrogen sulfide managed by the petroleum refining sector in 2012 and 2013.

This figure shows the quantity of hydrogen sulfide that the petroleum refining industry reported to TRI in 2012 and 2013 compared to all other TRI chemicals reported by refineries. Hydrogen sulfide is generated from the hydrotreating process that reacts the sulfur compounds found in crude oil with hydrogen gas. The resulting hydrogen sulfide is then typically converted into elemental sulfur using the Claus process. Thus, almost all hydrogen sulfide is reported as treated.

From 2012 to 2013, when hydrogen sulfide is included, the industry’s production-related waste decreased by 31%, driven by a reduction in hydrogen sulfide waste reported, which dropped from 1,483 million lb to 665 million lb. This reduction was primarily due to decreased hydrogen sulfide reporting by a few facilities, although most facilities in the sector reported much less hydrogen sulfide waste in 2013 than they did in 2012.

In 2013, 11% of petroleum refineries initiated source reduction activities in 2013 to reduce their toxic chemical use and waste generation. The most commonly reported source reduction activities were good operating practices, process modifications, and spill and leak prevention. For example, a petroleum refinery reported that it replaced two charge heaters with one charge heater that uses an ultra-low nitrogen oxides burner and reduced the benzene waste generated while increasing production. TRI’s Pollution Prevention Search Tool can help you learn more about pollution prevention opportunities in this sector.

This page was published in January 2015 and uses the 2013 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2014.